If you've ever wondered what it's like to run a magazine or how crazy my personal life is, be sure to read the behind-the-scenes peek at the daily trials and tribulations of running True West. Culled straight from my Franklin Daytimer, it contains actual journal entries, laid out raw and uncensored. Some of it is enlightening. Much of it is embarrassing, but all of it is painfully true.
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Wednesday, November 30, 2005

November 30, 2005 Well, today was Gus Walker’s last and we had fun. Many of us joined him down at the Satisfied Frog for lunch ($108, we went dutch, I put in $11). When the waitress asked for our drink order we went around the table and it sounded like this: "Iced tea, please. Sprite. Diet coke, iced tea for me," Gus said quietly, but with some enthusiasm, "I’ll take a beer!" We all laughed. The waitress looked at me funny, and I said, “What am I going to do, fire him?" We gave him a card signed by everyone and the Guster actually got kind of choked up reading the many gushing comments. I asked him to name the best and worst thing that happened in his True West career and he thought about it for some time and finally said, "The day Marcus Huff quit was not my favorite." The event was replayed for all those too new, or too young to know (it's in the business timeline, above, see October, 2000).

One of the last and best hand-drawn sign painters in America came by yesterday. Allen Scott, late of Bisbee, and the guy who did our True West Trading Post sign on our building, dropped in. He recommended an article idea on Old West sign painting, which I agreed would be a great article for True West. It's a disappearing art and in the Old West there were some really great signs that computers couldn’t even touch today (I mean starting from scratch).

We’ve got a new reader’s survey up and we need your input. The first 100responses will get a free Charlie Russell artprint.

After lunch we came back to the office and took a parting shot picture for Gus to take with him. A kind of class picture, if you will. Standing out back, left to right, back row, are: Sue Lambert, Meghan Saar, Carole Glenn, Trish Brink, Sheri Temen, Gus Walker and Abby Pearson. Second row, kneeling: George Laibe, Samantha Somers, Ron Frieling and BBB. And, lying down on the job, in full showboat-mode, is Robert Ray.

Talked quite a bit this morning about our impending trip to Vegas for the SASS convention and Cowboy Christmas this weekend. I’ve got three speeches in the next 48 hours and very little time to practice my remarks. Need to go home (it’s 4:28 P.M.) and take some time to talk it through in my mind.

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About Me

Bob Boze Bell's work has appeared in Arizona Highways, Playboy, National Lampoon, the Arizona Republic and True West magazine.
For ten years (2002-20012) he did a video version of True West Moments which ran on the Westerns Channel.
BBB can currently be seen on the series "Gunslingers" which runs on the American Heroes Channel.
Triple B is also the President and executive editor of True West magazine, positions he has held since 1999.
He has written a dozen books on Old West characters like Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok and a three-part series (so far) on Classic Gunfights which appear in True West. These popular, heavily illustrated books have sold over 90,000 copies, so far.
In 2014 he published a visual memoir of growing up on Route 66 called "The 66 Kid," and he is currently working on a bio of Geronimo.
As for retirement, BBB says, "Work is only work if you'd rather be someplace else. And I'm exactly where I want to be."